Why I'm Thankful for George W. Bush

On October 23, 1983 the Marine Corps Battalion Landing Team (BLT) building located at the Beirut International Airport was blown up. Two hundred twenty Marines, 18 Sailors and 3 Soldiers were killed in a split second by a suicide bomber. I wasn't there at the time. I was participating in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada. I was a squadron CH-46E helicopter co-pilot in Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (HMM-261) and also the squadron classified materials officer. Being the one who set up the squadron classified messages, I read about it before most others. It was an unbelievable gut punch and breathtaking in a bad way.

I did arrive in Lebanon with the rest of HMM-261 about two weeks later to relieve the aviation combat element for the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, HMM-162. My first day landing in LZ S-Bird, located directly besides the now destroyed BLT building was quite sobering. Twisted metal spikes of rebar jutted out of the concrete wreckage in no particular recognizable fashion. Bits of boot leather, t-shirts and camouflage utility shreds dangled from the several feet long ragged rebar. Indications of human occupation in the flattened mass demanded no comments about what happened and how. Silence and reverence was the only response we could muster every time we saw it, every day we landed there for the next few months.

We did all ask each other and comment with each other about this new and wildly evil enemy that knew no boundaries, no uniforms, no flags, no geographical limits and no respect whatsoever for human life. They were the new head of the food chain; the great white shark killing machine with no intentions of killing for survival. Theirs was to kill for ideology and for effect, terrifying effect.

How do you fight this enemy? How do you fight such a stealth and taunting ideology who uses all of your assets and all of your weaknesses against all of your decency and love for freedom? When was there an enemy in history like this, whose object of passionate faith was in a sick, self destructive ideology? What the hell is this thing and how do we meet and engage this enemy on the battlefields or locations on which we are trained?

It was all new to all of us and we knew it. We talked about it and then quickly changed the subject. Marines aren't used to being in a place where we couldn't seek and destroy the enemy. It was strange ground. This new threat was going to require new school books, new manuals, unknown training and above all leaders who could figure it all out. We kept busy occupying ourselves with the task at hand, international peace keeping -- whatever the hell that meant -- but the eerie new enemy never left our deeper thoughts.

Fast forward years later and that enemy became active again like a gurgling volcano. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Kobar Towers, African embassies, USS Cole all went unanswered like the '83 BLT bombing. I was off active duty, had inter-service transferred into the Navy Reserves and working a civilian job in the aerospace industry when the first WTC bombing took place. Obviously no one figured out how or still didn't have the moral courage to close with and engage the enemy even after the USS Cole was bombed several years later. Terrorism, the exact same kind from the exact group of ideologies in 1983, was slowly defeating us and we acted like a nation locked out of a motel room, standing in the rain, naked.

Then, the worst terror attack in world history took place on our shores. We all know it. We all felt that same gut punch, but this time we had a leader who had his clothes on, the room key, an umbrella and a reassuring smile on his face. Why so many hated him for that can only be explained by unbridled pettiness but there was no time to focus on destroying his life. This enemy had now engaged us in our house and we had to close with him, borders or no borders, uniforms or no uniforms, battlefields or no battlefields. George W Bush was that leader -- but how was he going to defeat these guys?

General Tommy Franks told us precisely how on Day One of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Few caught it. It was so very simple and so very brilliant and almost everyone thought it only applied to one objective; overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Remember what he said?

"We will close with and engage the enemy at a time and place of our choosing."

It was genius and anyone in the United States who thought it only meant Saddam Hussein were rope-a-doped along with the new enemy. The American rope-a-dopers whose occupation it was to destroy George W Bush, unknowingly helped severely weaken the most difficult enemy faced by any state or alliance in human history.

Now how did we win and cripple for life this new enemy? Using their ideology against them, we lured them into a location in which we could engage them using our superior capabilities on a battlefield with which we were quite familiar. This enemy is a worldwide cancer and occupies not merely Afghanistan (an extremely difficult theater to say the least) but also the entire globe. It would have been impossible to go to several nations, cross their sovereign borders, find the terrorist hideouts then close with and engage them.

Imagine the worldwide hair lighting on fire had that happened. It was bad enough when yellow cake was hidden by glasses of mint tea in Niger from one of the Bush hating torches. Barney Frank would have gone straight, found his false teeth, worn them and lit his hair on fire if we invaded several nations. We didn't. We drew them into Iraq and we killed them there. Simple and genius.

Even Barack Obama admitted it -- and as usual, was clueless when he did so. Remember his pre-election interview on Fox News with Bill O'Reilly? Bill asked him if George W Bush was right about the surge and defeating al Qaeda in Iraq. Remember what Obama said?

"Before Bush invaded, there was no al Qaeda in Iraq."

You got it Sun Tzu, er, I mean Mr. President. The strategery worked as planned, just like Tommy Franks said it would "at a time and place of OUR choosing."

The enemy's ideology drew him to attack American forces in Iraq with the intention to force an American loss. The more the mainstream media and Democrats celebrated each thousand American deaths, the more terrorists from all over the globe flocked to Iraq. Each worked with the other to further their own set of agendas and ideologies; one for political power and the other for twisted religious ideology. While doing so, we destroyed the enemy and their leaders, most going completely unreported. It was brilliant. So much so that they still haven't figured it out because they simply do not have the ability to do so. The domestic opposition did however have the ability to take credit for W's win last week, celebrating Iraqi victory over terrorism.

That is why I want to thank George W Bush and the military leaders who finally, finally after all the lost friends, lost Marines, lost three thousand plus Americans, had the courage and temerity to close with and engage this new enemy and defeat them in so many ways, crippling them to the point of near extinction. You also taught our new president how to authorize a surge like the one now taking place in Afghanistan. Leftist pettiness would never allow them to call it that, but that is exactly what it is patterned after, General Petraeus.

Thank you President Bush. I know it doesn't mean much coming from some former Marine in Missouri but I appreciate what you did and I'll never forget it.

Newby, It pains me to see posters try to ruin an obviously positive article by posting their ire more than once. Most of us here wouldn’t go to another site and do that. Perhaps you haven’t been here long enough to learn that.

Even if we were to concede??? Are you that ignorant that you don't KNOW that we weren't hit by terrorists because of the vigilance of George W. Bush? Yikes!

The political argument you take is sheer nonsense as well. The leftist media lied incessantly about Bush, about the war, about our military, about the economy and forced his approval down with their lies. The Republicans, wanting to be popular boys, stayed away from the "unpopular" one, and also abandoned our troops in battle. The media lied through their teeth about Obama, slobbered all over him and covered his campaign entirely postively. Our culture and leftist educational systems have created a white guilt that caused a lot of the voters to want to be cool and vote for the first black President. McCain ran a stinky campaign and was a weak candidate. And there was a Democrat created economic crash that everyone stupidly blamed on the President.

Blaming George W. Bush for socialism is ludicrous. You have to ignore 95% of the facts to believe as you do.

let’s not forget the fraud chosen1’s campaign committed regarding financing. Shutting down the ID verification check for all those online contributions meant that the 200 dollar limit on contributions could be bypassed, and with no ID associated with previous contributions, there was also no limit on how much a given account could contribute. Just perfect for the Soros’ of the world to provide funds to chosen1.

Imagine, having 1000 separate accounts setup, each one going through the ka-ching! routine approximately every 10 minutes (time it takes to process one of these); day in and day out, starting months before. Chosen1 had almost 3 quarters of a BILLION dollars to spend this last election, and only went through about 1/2 of it. Do the math, even for a month’s worth of “contributions”.

President Bush didn’t do this, Theodore...

JG

56
posted on 07/09/2009 7:02:08 AM PDT
by Jacksonian Grouch
(God has granted us Freedom; we owe Him our courage in return)

It wasn't his politics that brought such ire upon George W. Bush, it was the economic situation that the country fell into. Most people I know who voted for Obama, sadly, some fellow Catholics, did so because of the ECONOMY. They mistakenly thought that the Republicans had caused it, and that the Democrats couldn't do any worse, so why not try them?

Well, 6 months later, many are regretting that mistake in judgment. If they'd had the facts about just who brought on the mortgage crisis, they might have thought twice, but the MSM never revealed that; still hasn't, to this day.

"Thank you President Bush. I know it doesn't mean much coming from some former Marine in Missouri but I appreciate what you did and I'll never forget it."

I've got a feeling that it means a lot more coming from guys like Ken Russell than he will ever know considering the love and respect President Bush has demonstrated for them through the years.

Adding my love and appreciation for President Bush and all that he did to keep us safe. God bless him and his family. God bless our military people and their families. May God continue to bless America

63
posted on 07/09/2009 11:00:10 AM PDT
by LucyJo
("...guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism...". George Washington)

Exactly, SuziQ! The Dems caused the crash (and I still think there was Soros sabotage in the Money Markets), and the voting public stupidly blamed the Republicans and Bush (most of them didn't even know that the Dems were in control of Congress).

President Bush didn't cause the economy to tank, and that's a big part of why Obama won. McCain was ahead in September.

Leadership. Contrast that with the todays White House. We were blessed.

Indeed. His words were powerful and displayed leadership and a determined perseverence that the country needed then and still does today.

I'll never understand those who branded him a bumbler who couldn't put two words together in a sentence.

All I can figure is those folks prefer the oratorical skills of such greats as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barney Frank, or the canned gibberish of pompous performers such as Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Al Gore.

Correct, although General Franks adapted the words to a military context. STARWISE has posted the actual quote along with many others in post #36.

"War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.  George W. Bush, 9/20/01

I always thought the overall strategy on the war on terror was not Iraq directly but the overall goal was to totally isolate Iran, and it was accomplished in the beginning with our initial success in Iraq, and Afghanistan and the partnerships that the bush administration established in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Iran was for a short time isolated. Only when the frickin Dems showed weakness did Iran start a full court press. I think the Bush administration saw an opportunity for unrest in Iran. Maybe I’m wrong but I think that what recently happened in Iran is what the Bush administration saw as an opportunity 3-4 years ago and we would have been in a strong position to rally the opposition in Iran.

& the worst is still to come; check BC threads here on freep and you’ll note that there’s initial evidence pointing to chosen1 having paid almost a million to various law firms. Plus there’s the money push that key dhimmicrat races during this last election got from chosen1 floating them bucks from his huge stash - some of these pushed dhimmis over the hump as it were, contributing to their majorities. Think Pennsylvania & Ohio, for starters.

The one that concerns me the most: chosen1 setting up the stimulus to kick in right around successive election cycles in 2010 & 2012. Reminds me of how the local govs would get the streets paved during the months before a general election; always had a beneficial effect for the party in power.

GOP has an uphill battle, imo...

JG

73
posted on 07/09/2009 12:45:50 PM PDT
by Jacksonian Grouch
(God has granted us Freedom; we owe Him our courage in return)

No kidding. It's never been rougher, IMO. Our best hope is that Obama continues to reveal his complete incompetence to deal with issues foreign and domestic. His poll numbers are sinking, leading me to believe that chinks in his armor are forming.

What we need now is some strong leadership in the GOP. I hope it's there...........somewhere!

WOW! Thanks for the pictures.... especially that first one. I hadn’t seen that one before. How I miss President Bush. I don’t even use the word “President” any more. I feel as though I don’t have one. It’s all so depressing.

Yawn, any time someone has a dissenting opinion, they are called a "newbie" or troll. What's ironic is that with all the talk about RINO's here, Bush is one of the biggest.

The author of the article leads with a discussion of the Beirut bombing of the US marine barracks. It was an act of war committed by Iran. Nothing was done. If you can't handle hearing that fact, maybe the internet is not the best place for you.

You missed the point of my comments; that bringing up the Beirut bombing was misplaced in a discussion about terrorists and the US’s (including Bush) actions against them. Iran was behind that attack and it was an act of war, among others.

#1 - RINO is so overused it's absolutely meaningless.#2 - President Bush was a consistent tax cutter and pro-business conservative#3 - President Bush was the most pro-life President we have ever had.#4 - President Bush was strongly pro-military.#5 - President Bush was strongly pro-American sovereignty and stood up to the world on behalf of this great country (including multiple times to the UN).#6 - President Bush nominated two of the most conservative SC Justices on the court, and completely consistent conservative judges on the federal bench.

Ergo, your "assessment" that President Bush was "one of the biggest" RINO's is incorrect.

Since 2008 11-05.....you are a newby, probably a troll. You failed to appreciate a very good article that most of us enjoyed.

You blame President Bush for not responding to the bombing that happened 30 years ago? I am well aware of the outcome of the bombing. I remember it well. However, GWB kept this nation safe for 7 years. I will forever be grateful for that. You should be too.

Bush sold us out on immigration, spending and the deficit. He originally failed on the occupation of Iraq, was slow to increase troop levels and starting pulling them out too soon. He increased the size of government, didn't reform the tax code, gave the Democrats the advantage and lost both Houses of Congress, to name a few. IIRC, Giuliani, Romney and McCain have all been called RINO's on this site. Surely, Bush fits the criteria if they do.

He also nominated Harriet Miers and didn't nominate Scalia for Chief Justice.

Nothing like this would have ever been allowed to take place on W's watch. As a veteran myself, I am infuriated by this naive and boneheaded action of Obama and his leftist stooges. In my mind, this is no less than treason.

BTW, on a lighter note, I just noticed your tagline. Please thank your son ( or is it daughter) for their service to our country. God Bless.

You can't sell people out if you do what you said you'd do and operate according to your beliefs that have been well identified. You may disagree with Bush's attempts at immigration reform (I do), but to say he "sold us out" is poppycock. I believe that he could have reduced spending by vetoing Congress' spending bills (you do realize that Congress is who spends money, right?), but a large part of those bills was to fight the war on terror, and that's what kept us safe.

Your Iraq stuff is nonsense. Sounds like you got it from the Obamafreaks on YouTube. One thing that you're obviously ignorant about (among many), is that President Bush, like the strong Commander in Chief that he was, allowed the Generals in the field to dictate how the mission was being run. Making a long story short, he, like Lincoln, needed to find the right one to do what needed to be done to win the war, and chose Petraeus, who proceeded to come up with the strategy that did win the war.

Yes, he increased the size of government, but so did Reagan. Reducing it is pretty much impossible, no matter what your goals are.

HE did not lose Congress, the wimpy Republicans lost Congress by abandoning him, the War in Iraq and our troops. He held firm. The Republicans went wobbly. As for the tax reform, where did that come from? You don't respect him because he was fighting two wars, battling a lying media and a wimpy Congress turned Dem, and didn't reform the tax code? How ridiculous!

Giuliani is pro-abortion, Romney enacted liberal healthcare, McCain has fallen for the global warming nonsense. ALL of them might be called "RINO" (though it's still ridiculously overused), but Bush cannot. Period.

The Republican party is not now, nor has ever been 100% aligned with the conservatives in the party. We have always had moderate Republicans in the party, and those of us who really ARE conservative have always known that.

Therefore, if you are in the chorus screaming "everyone is a RINO!" then you are either a troll, or ignorant about what the Republican party is. In either case, you are wrong about President Bush.

btw, your use of the word "occupation" regarding Iraq gives you away as a liberal. You'd better work on that before you post your nonsense on another thread.

That's one of the dumber things I've heard here. We needed to occupy Iraq from Day One. I have no problem with the term and Bush shouldn't either. Because he was swayed by politics and did not want to appear to occupy Iraq, it hurt us. We OCCUPIED Germany and Japan after WWII. That you're scared of the term suggests that you're just another RINO running scared from Democrats. See, I can play that game too.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.